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How Do We Control Chaos?

Performance is reality. And in uncertain and turbulent times how we perform makes all the difference between success, and sometimes death or injury. Performance is about task, accuracy, speed, and accomplishment. It’s the connection between actions and goals, and having a sense of what matters to you most gets you closer to accomplishing your goals. Performance is about “getting things done.”

Gulfstream Hotel fire mural in exercise room at PBCFR Station 91.

Here are some nuggets on improving performance through leadership and understanding the human element.

There is nothing in this world constant, but inconstancy. ~Jonathan Swift

The world isn’t what it used to be:

There is less stability.
There is more technology, and it grows faster every day.
There are more demands and expectations.
There is less job security and more worker demand for “empowerment.”
There is more complexity.
There is more danger.

We face awesome challenges in our chaotic and constantly changing world, and it will continue at a rapid rate. As world demands and instability increase, it’s clear that the current complexity and danger is not going away. Change will continue to be the only constant.

There is a call to arms by many for better performance everywhere, all the time. It’s time we improve individual, team, and organizational performance. It’s time we start controlling chaos.

We may not control the outcome, but we can control the input – our effort. ~UCLA Basketball Coach, John Wooden

Our world and our work demands that we have an acute awareness of what’s happening, the ability to adapt to changing situations, and the skill and will to make critical decisions, and fast! We have to design and implement ways to help control the chaos of information, time, and space in today’s complex world.

What Is Chaos?

Chaos can be defined as complete disorder and confusion, or behavior so unpredictable so as to appear random, owing to great sensitivity to small changes in conditions. It usually carries a negative connotation involving undesirable disorganization or confusion.

How Do We Control Chaos?

We control chaos by becoming thinking and adapting leaders. We learn to transform unproductive confusion and disorder into controllable challenges. We study, practice and build the following: